visit from sparrowhawk. (1 Viewer)

I was out in the garden at about 6-15pm and it seemed very quite, + blackie was making his clucking alarm sound from within the hedgerow. Have you ever had that feeling your being watched? well i looked round the garden and sat on the end of the fence near to the hedge was our neighbourhood sparrowhawk, she sat there for a good 5min's so it was nice to get some good views of her from close up. She never took her beady eye of me, and she dident get any of our featherd friends, another look around at the empty garden and of she went, nice while it lasted.
bert.

bert said:

I was out in the garden at about 6-15pm and it seemed very quite, + blackie was making his clucking alarm sound from within the hedgerow. Have you ever had that feeling your being watched? well i looked round the garden and sat on the end of the fence near to the hedge was our neighbourhood sparrowhawk, she sat there for a good 5min's so it was nice to get some good views of her from close up. She never took her beady eye of me, and she dident get any of our featherd friends, another look around at the empty garden and of she went, nice while it lasted.
bert.

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Very nice. You should have got your camera out!

helenol said:

Very nice. You should have got your camera out!

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Helen, i am not into digital cameras and my 35mm is out of action!! the only other i use is a 6X6 camera and by the time i get it set up it would have been dark, they are not a quick action camera but they produce great pic's if you dont mind being slow. some you win some you lose maybe next time!!!
bert.

I have had a few encounters like this too. The Sprawk flies in, the birds scatter and the Sprawk lands on the fence and just sits there looking around sometimes up to 20 minutes. A couple of times I have had time to pop indoors and grab the camera before it has moved off. Both sexes do this.

On one occasion a sparrowhawk sat on one of the arms of my new pole feeder - hope I'm not breaking any rule by posting the pic again! (It's not a good photo, because it was taken very hastily through a partly open door, and through a double glazed window).

Then last week, one made a dive for a bird on this feeder, missed and headed straight on towards the patio doors. Just in time it swerved upwards - leaving an impressive imprint on the glass. I was in the study at the time (on BF), but it gave my husband quite a shock!!!

We have a pair that have visited the garden regularly over the last 6 months and have now started to show an interesting pattern in their behaviour.

They will actively hunt for a couple of days max, male and female alternately - making several succesful visits a day. Then for the next couple of weeks they will appear fairly regularly but not actively hunt. As Ian notes, one or other of them will take up position at the end of the garden and sit for quite some time, just watching, to the point that some smaller birds will start appearing out of the undergrowth - but causing no discernable response in the sprawk.

They have 2 favourite perches - the one shown below, low down on the edge of the garden towards the back (which the male tends to favour), and the other high up in a tall oak overlooking the garden (which the female tends to favour).

They've had quite a successful year this year - I've seen them take 2 out of the 4 fledgling bullfinches we had (sigh!!), several greenfinches, several dunnocks, and they seem to be getting pretty adept at taking greenfinches & chaffinches in mid-air (which is both impressive & saddening) ... and clumps of feathers have indicated other kills. Because of this success, I've wondered if it is a deliberate tactic to only actively hunt this spot every couple weeks - and if the sitting there impassively is an attempt to lull the resident garden populations into a false sense of security - particularly as I notes that at times some birds will come out into the open when one of the sprawks has been sitting around for a long period.

Must read up on sprawk hunting patterns .... but has anyone got an opinion on this observation ??

Annie

Elizabeth Bigg said:

(It's not a good photo, because it was taken very hastily through a partly open door, and through a double glazed window).

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Not very good!!!.....just about my favourite Sparrowhawk pic ever, I think it is so funny sitting on the feeder, wish I had took it.

Mick

AnnieW said:

..... Must read up on sprawk hunting patterns .... but has anyone got an opinion on this observation ?? Annie

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Just being cheeky and pushing this back into radar view - as I'm genuinely interested in whether my `wonderings' two posts back are correct. Are raptors (or sparrowhawks in particular) known to visit hunting grounds when not actively hunting to give potential prey a warm feeling that they are not in danger ??

Annie

AnnieW said:

Just being cheeky and pushing this back into radar view - as I'm genuinely interested in whether my `wonderings' two posts back are correct. Are raptors (or sparrowhawks in particular) known to visit hunting grounds when not actively hunting to give potential prey a warm feeling that they are not in danger ??

Annie

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Annie,

I certainly get the same impression from my 'spawks'. They either sit and watch with no attempt to 'go in for the kill' or they are complete lunatics that throw themselves into a thorny bush to get at anything with feathers!!

I suppose it might depend on how hungry they are! :h?:

Caught this Sprawk eyeing our pet canary through the kitchen window!

Alan.

Great capture Alan. We have a budgie am we're pretty certain that his 'talking' is one of the reasons the Sprawks linger so long in the garden as they can hear him through the open window. If only he knew

My ex-neighbour had a hawk actually fly inside her conservatory after her parrots, which were fortunately in their cages at the time.

AnnieW said:

Just being cheeky and pushing this back into radar view - as I'm genuinely interested in whether my `wonderings' two posts back are correct. Are raptors (or sparrowhawks in particular) known to visit hunting grounds when not actively hunting to give potential prey a warm feeling that they are not in danger ??

Annie

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Extending the connection somewhat but there seems to be a certain telepathy in larger animals about when it is safe and when not. Certainly you'll see in the big cats that if they are sated and sleeping off a meal then antelope etc will wander cheerfully by
Would be wonderfully anthropomorphic to think the sprawk was mentally mapping out the territory so when it came in at full flight it knew the likely strike spots.
In Yorks they fed regularly along a set of gardens and it was amusing to hear people cursing them for taking the blue tits etc. I look on it as a rare view of real nature and almost set the table up with a clear flight line !